“God’s influencer” (15) is declared holy. Who was he? And how do you become holy?

He is laid out in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, Italy, behind glass and dressed in jeanssweatshirt and sneakers. Visitors, more than a million in the past year, can do wishes and pray until Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15.

Acutis, who is called ‘God’s influencer’, a ‘saint on sneakers’ or the first ‘cyber saint’, will be declared holy by Pope Leo XIV on Sunday during Mass on Sint-Pietersplein in Rome. Acutis’ Hart, kept separately in another church in Assisi, is transferred to Rome for the ceremony.

With this canonization, a long campaign reaches the young who died of the young, the final stage. His mother Antonia, experienced in the publishing company, is a driving force behind his fame and the source of numerous stories about the boy, who would have brought her to the faith again. He would also have converted the handyman of the family, an immigrant from Mauritius.

Acutis’ fame has spread worldwide. Hundreds of religious sites and Facebook groups celebrate his life and work. Numerous memorabilia circulate on eBay such as silver coins with his image. But alleged tufts of his hair were also circulating, anonymously offered for prices up to 2,000 euros. A hair loft, brought to Ireland in a black box to be exhibited at an agricultural festivalwas stolen by strangers last year.

The church has The trade in Acutis-Relics rejected. It is not only reprehensible but also sinful, explained the head of the papal committee for World Casting – who herself keeps a Lok van Acutis’ her in a chapel at his office, for young worshipers. The church called for the police for help in the hope that trade in alleged relics will stop.

Miracles after his death

Carlo Acutis (1991), child of wealthy – and secular – Italian parents, died of leukemia in 2006. He was a believing boy who visited Catholic private schools in Milan and, according to his environment, was attracted to the humble message of Saint Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226). He kept an online list of wonders, in particular those around the Eucharist, the Holy Mass with the blood (wine) and body (bread) of Christ. He is attributed to him numerous early methods, selfless statements (“others suffer much more than me”, about his illness) that fit into the ideal of Christian charity and sacrifice.

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After his late death, his miracles also entered the world. A first miracle occurred in 2013, then a 3-year-old Brazilian boy healing an pancreas disorderafter he had kissed a relic, a piece of clothing from Acutis in a church. Such relics go around the world regulated; It is said that a few hundred pieces of hair from Acutis are circulating.

The Vatican acknowledged the miracle in 2020 and blissed acutis, an intermediate step on the way to canonization as a saint. His body was dug up for that – rumors soon circulated that the material remains of the young man would be ‘unaffected’, a sign of divine election. That was not the case, Acutis’ corpse was’ integral ‘but not intact, the church said. Acutis’ face got a silicone mask, his body was covered with a wax layer.

A second miracle was verified by the ecclesiastical authorities last year: a 21-year-old woman from Costa Rica sustained a heavy head wound in 2022 at a bicycle accident in Florence, but recovered promptly after her mother had prayed at the grave of Acutis in Assisi.

You don’t just become holy

Canonization is one complex procedureformally recorded in the Sacra Ritum Congregatio from 1588, revised in 1969. An aspiring saint may not have led a sinful life to him or her must have two Bona Fide Miracles are attributed, as proof that God works by them at the service of the believers. Supporters of an aspiring saint must provide evidence.

The life of Acutis was also screened, including the contents of his computer. In the end, Pope Franciscus approved the canonization of Acutis last summer, but due to the death of the Pontifex in April, the ceremony had to be postponed until September.

Canonizing saints is a tradition for the Catholic Church, but also a patent means to join new times and generations. Acutis, a modern boy who had a PlayStation and loved gaming, is called the first “cyber saint”, a hyphen between the Vatican and Silicon Valley.

Acutis is not the youngest saint ever, also many children who were declared sacred over the centuries. The youngest non-martelaren are The shepherd children Francisco (9) and Jacinta (7) Martowho reported Maria-appearances in 1917 in Fatima, Portuguese and in 2017 were declared holy By Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis. The children died shortly after their visions on the Spanish flu.

Praise but also skepticism

The canony ‘computer-nerd’ is responded to differently. In the Netherlands, auxiliary bishop Rob Mutsaerts of the diocese of Den Bosch Acutis in a letter Like “a boy who wore his jeans like armor and the internet as his sword.” His religious dedication was “a strong tap against the modern worldview” and a sign that young people have enough of “the desert of relativism,” said Mutsaerts, who calls in his letter “let the clocks echo, the servers vibrate”.

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The digital appropriation by the church also encounters skepticism. Acutis died before the heyday of social media such as Facebook and Twitter and of its original websites, almost nothing can be found anymore. The German newspaper Die Tageszeitung noted that his now famous Site with wonders around the Eucharist Only in 2007, after his death, was registered. The site is the elaboration of an online list that Acutis kept as a PDF, according to the left German newspaper. He also notices that the list contains miracle stories used in the Middle Ages to legitimize attacks on Jews. Also another site, with The Maria appearances According to the newspaper, which he collected only went online after his death in the current form.

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